Mussolini and Italian art

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When Hitler paid a state visit to Florence with Benito Mussolini in May 1938, 20 per cent of the city’s annual budget was spent on the flags, bunting and military displays to ensure that the welcome was suitably bombastic.

As it transpired the day was a tipping point for the dictator. Within two months he had introduced the anti-Jewish Racial Manifesto and then turned his attention to the arts. Hitherto he had been unconcerned about art and told the audience at the opening of an exhibition of the Novecento artistic movement: “It is far from my idea to encourage anything